Fitch warns it may cut US rating

New York: Fitch Ratings warned on Tuesday it could cut the sovereign credit rating of the United States from AAA, citing the political brinkmanship over raising the federal debt ceiling.      "Although Fitch continues to believe that the debt ceiling will be raised soon, the political brinkmanship and reduced financing flexibility could increase the risk of a US default," the firm said in a statement issued before US lawmakers managed to avert a debt default.      The firm put its opinion about the creditworthiness of US government debt on what its calls Ratings Watch Negative, a reflection of the increasing risk of a nearterm default if the debt limit is not raised in time. It gave itself until the end of the first quarter of 2014 to decide whether it will actually cut the rating. Still, Fitch reaffirmed its belief that an agreement to raise the debt ceiling will be reached, allowing the US government to pay its bills by borrowing beyond the $16.7-trillion limit currently in place.      Fitch is the only one of the three major credit rating agencies to have a negative outlook on the US sovereign credit. Standard & Poor's downgraded the rating to AA-plus with a stable outlook during the last debt ceiling impasse, in August 2011. REUTERS  Fed hawk Fisher sees no QE cut in Oct  New York:"Reckless" US fiscal policy will likely force the Federal Reserve to stand pat on monetary policy this month, one of the Fed's biggest critics of the US central bank's bond-buying programme said on Tuesday. Richard Fisher, the hawkish president of the Federal Reserve Bank of Dallas, said that the fiscal standoff means even he would find it difficult to make a case for scaling back bond purchases at the Fed's policy meeting on October 29-30. "My personal opinion is that it's not in play," Fisher said. "This is just too tender a moment." REUTERS